Tips For Decorating Walls and Making Attractive Wall Groupings

Creating a cohesive wall grouping can be easy to accomplish. All it takes is some planning and a few supplies. The easiest way to design a wall grouping is to lay your pictures out on the floor and arrange and rearrange them until you are happy with how they look. If you cut a piece of paper, Kraft paper or butcher paper, the size of your wall display area and place it on the floor, you can move your pictures around until you find the cohesive wall grouping you desire. Include a strong horizontal line, and maybe a strong vertical line also, in your layout.

Once you are happy that your layout is visually and physically balanced, place a mark on the paper where the nails would need to be to evenly hang your pictures. Now remove the pictures and tack the paper to the wall using masking tape or painter's tape. You can now hammer nails into your marks through the paper, knowing you have the perfect placement for a cohesive wall grouping. Remove the paper and hang your picture frames. Remember for a grouping hung above a sofa or chair that you want the lowest picture frame hung close enough to maintain a visual link between the sofa and picture frame but high enough that no one would hit their head against it while seated.

Tips for Your Wall Groupings

For a cohesive artwork grouping when there are various sizes of picture frames, you can create an eye-pleasing arrangement by including a common element. Display similar subject pieces together or use similar frames, like all black wood picture frames or you could display all black and white prints.

Geometric shapes, like squares, rectangles, triangles, circles or diamond shapes should be formed when arranging your wall grouping.

Small spaces need simplicity. A grouping of small picture frames holding prints of delicate seashells, flowers or ferns would look great in a small bathroom.

Picture frames have the power to enhance any piece of art. Frame a portrait or simple print in a gold picture frame and you have an elegant display. For rustic pieces of artwork, choose picture frames with a primitive wood look.

Mirrors are popular and are considered wall art. They can be held in a picture frame, but many mirrors have beveled edges that provide all the interest and beauty they need without a frame. A mirror will reflect light into your room and give a more open feeling to a small space. But, remember that a mirror reflects so be sure that what it reflects is something you want to look at.

Space Considerations

You always need to take into consideration the space where your pictures will hang. If you have a large space, you wouldn't want to hang a grouping of small photographs that would get lost, just as you wouldn't want to overwhelm a small wall by hanging a large photo grouping on it. Scale is important to a cohesive wall grouping. Select the artwork to fit the wall space. For example, if you have a long hallway, you can connect one end of the hallway to the other by hanging pictures in line along the wall.

Other Considerations

It is a generally accepted concept that pictures should hang at eye level or just below eye level. People are drawn to what they can easily see, so hanging pictures at eye level will draw their eye and allow them to connect with the art.

Lighting is another consideration when creating a cohesive wall grouping. Will your grouping receive a lot of light or will it need its own illumination? What type of light will it receive? Direct sunlight can damage artwork so, if possible, don't hang your artwork where it will receive direct sunlight. If direct sunlight is hard to avoid, use anti-reflective glass or acrylic when you frame your artwork.